La Canada Flintridge Starbucks under fire over racial slur printed on customer's cup
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (KABC) -- A La Canada Flintridge Starbucks is under fire after a racial slur against Latinos was printed on a customer's cup.
The coffee chain giant apologized after a woman tweeted that her co-worker, a cook, had the word "beaner" printed on his coffee cup, which she said he ordered at a Starbucks location near Gould Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in La Canada Flintridge on Tuesday.
"One of our cooks went in to @Starbucks on Gould & Foothill this morning in La Canada & out of all the names they can put on his cup they decide to put "beaner." We called & complained & their excuse was they couldn't understand him. Regardless; there are MANY names you can put," the tweet stated.
Starbucks replied to Priscilla Hernandez' tweet, saying it reached out to the customer to apologize and "make things right."
RELATED: Men arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks say they did nothing wrong, feared for their lives
In a statement to Eyewitness News, the coffee chain said it was conducting an investigation into how the incident happened and how to prevent it from happening again.
"This is not indicative of the type of experience we want our customers to have when they walk into our stores. We have apologized to the customer directly and are working to make things right," the statement read in part.
"Beaner" is a term used as a racial slur against Latinos, which originates from the commonness of pinto beans in Mexican food.
The incident is just the latest accusation of racism involving the company. Outrage mounted when video surfaced of two black men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks after sitting inside the location without ordering anything. A customer claimed a similar situation also occurred at a Torrance Starbucks.
Starbucks has since changed its bathroom policy, opening its bathrooms to everyone regardless of whether they've bought anything.
